Something to think about...
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
The Sad Pad of Dispair..OR...Oy, My Achin' Back!
We have finally begun major renovations of the homestead by arranging with one of the local concrete companies to bring us four and a half square yards of dinosaur poo from which we made a 15'x25' pad to place the "build it yourself" storage buildings that have been sitting in the front yard for the past two years upon.
I say dinosaur poo because concrete should flow like gravy, not sit in a large, damp pile looking like some huge herbivour with bad dietary habits paused in your yard. The concrete delivery person wasn't the least bit interested in the fact that it wasn't the consistency it was supposed to be...he just wanted to, you should pardon the phrase, dump his load and go.
Sooo...picture Mom, Bree, and me out with two shovels and a garden rake trying to move a ton of wet poo into a frame. Not a pretty sight! We eventually had to take the old gaming table, tie it to the garden tractor, and have Bree sit on the table as we dragged it back and forth across the concrete in an attempt to make it smooth. Didn't work.
There are huge cavetations, you can see where the original pile was at because the entire pad slopes away from that point, and it in general looks like Poo in a form. But it is done.
Next, we hired a couple of young men to construct the buildings for us. They didn't show up until late in the afternoon on the first day and puttered around doing nothing more than sorting out the parts and mis-assembling the base frame. They didn't show at all the second day. The third day Mom and I went to make our run to town and passed them in town. They waved and smiled like nothing was wrong.
When we got home we began construction on the first building ourselves and had 90% of it done in about five hours. We went out the next day and finished it up in around three hours and saved ourselves a bunch of money in the process. Now that we know how they go together, Mom is going to do pre-assembly of the base and corner sections, and the roofing struts, and we can get the rest of the building up in an afternoon.
Now, understand, you can see daylight under three of the four corners of the existing building. We are going to have to go in with a level and several bags of sacrete as well as spray foam insulation and make the buildings truly level but hey, we can start moving stuff out of the house and into the storage units as soon as it stops raining!
We hope to have the other building up and everything moved in the next couple of weeks so we can start repairs on the house. Anyone (within reason) who wants to show up and help is welcome! I'll fix lunch and we'll have a good time!!
I say dinosaur poo because concrete should flow like gravy, not sit in a large, damp pile looking like some huge herbivour with bad dietary habits paused in your yard. The concrete delivery person wasn't the least bit interested in the fact that it wasn't the consistency it was supposed to be...he just wanted to, you should pardon the phrase, dump his load and go.
Sooo...picture Mom, Bree, and me out with two shovels and a garden rake trying to move a ton of wet poo into a frame. Not a pretty sight! We eventually had to take the old gaming table, tie it to the garden tractor, and have Bree sit on the table as we dragged it back and forth across the concrete in an attempt to make it smooth. Didn't work.
There are huge cavetations, you can see where the original pile was at because the entire pad slopes away from that point, and it in general looks like Poo in a form. But it is done.
Next, we hired a couple of young men to construct the buildings for us. They didn't show up until late in the afternoon on the first day and puttered around doing nothing more than sorting out the parts and mis-assembling the base frame. They didn't show at all the second day. The third day Mom and I went to make our run to town and passed them in town. They waved and smiled like nothing was wrong.
When we got home we began construction on the first building ourselves and had 90% of it done in about five hours. We went out the next day and finished it up in around three hours and saved ourselves a bunch of money in the process. Now that we know how they go together, Mom is going to do pre-assembly of the base and corner sections, and the roofing struts, and we can get the rest of the building up in an afternoon.
Now, understand, you can see daylight under three of the four corners of the existing building. We are going to have to go in with a level and several bags of sacrete as well as spray foam insulation and make the buildings truly level but hey, we can start moving stuff out of the house and into the storage units as soon as it stops raining!
We hope to have the other building up and everything moved in the next couple of weeks so we can start repairs on the house. Anyone (within reason) who wants to show up and help is welcome! I'll fix lunch and we'll have a good time!!
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Life is Constanlty Interesting
Lessee...since last we met....
I heard back from the University of Arkansas on my application for a slot in their PhD in English program. Seems they had everything but my actual application to the College of English. I had to track down my professional portfolio (it's assessment time again) and get info from it to fill out a whole new set of forms and have them overnighted (can we actually use that as a verb??) in order to make the requirements. Of course, they called on a Monday night and the forms were due on Tuesday...they got them Friday. We shall see what we shall see, eh?
I'm actually in the NSU Fall 2005 course schedule...by NAME! I guess they're gonna keep me (insert sally fields oscar speech here..) at least for another year. I've done good by the department and they appreciate it. I'm teaching two comp I and two comp II classes with a release for the fifth class because I'm the "tech guy" for the department as well as the webmaster and main lackey. That's cool. I'll play lackey if they continue to pay. I've done worse things for less money, trust me.
Spring is attempting to rear it's head out in the valley. Between freezing mornings and warm afternoons nature is schizophrenic it seems. The pollen count is insane and we've discovered where the dividing line is between the "breathe/don't breathe" parts of NE Oklahoma: just about at the bridge at Muskogee. Soon as you hit the nurseries, the sinuses shut down.
Linda and I had three days in Tulsa last weekend. We left Friday, went to the Maul, er, Mall...and I bought her the birthday present I've wanted to get her for years: a diamond ring. Looks incredible on her tiny little hand, I must say. We went to Philbrook and viewed the Hudson River Artists show...what amazing use of light and space! I just can't rant enough about how beautiful it all was. Philbrook was nice too, but, hey, once you've seen it, it's still the same building.
This week has been Mid Term Exams and the final turn-in for research papers....guess what I get to do next week while everyone else is on spring break? I've managed to cut the work load by 2/3 by buckling down and getting the baseline grading done. If I do it right, there's about an hour a day of the other grading....I may yet get some of this legendary "free time" that the students speak of....
Well, it's time to go teach other teachers how to create online syllabi and class websites....my evening shift is about to begin, so, peace and remember: Life is Good!
I heard back from the University of Arkansas on my application for a slot in their PhD in English program. Seems they had everything but my actual application to the College of English. I had to track down my professional portfolio (it's assessment time again) and get info from it to fill out a whole new set of forms and have them overnighted (can we actually use that as a verb??) in order to make the requirements. Of course, they called on a Monday night and the forms were due on Tuesday...they got them Friday. We shall see what we shall see, eh?
I'm actually in the NSU Fall 2005 course schedule...by NAME! I guess they're gonna keep me (insert sally fields oscar speech here..) at least for another year. I've done good by the department and they appreciate it. I'm teaching two comp I and two comp II classes with a release for the fifth class because I'm the "tech guy" for the department as well as the webmaster and main lackey. That's cool. I'll play lackey if they continue to pay. I've done worse things for less money, trust me.
Spring is attempting to rear it's head out in the valley. Between freezing mornings and warm afternoons nature is schizophrenic it seems. The pollen count is insane and we've discovered where the dividing line is between the "breathe/don't breathe" parts of NE Oklahoma: just about at the bridge at Muskogee. Soon as you hit the nurseries, the sinuses shut down.
Linda and I had three days in Tulsa last weekend. We left Friday, went to the Maul, er, Mall...and I bought her the birthday present I've wanted to get her for years: a diamond ring. Looks incredible on her tiny little hand, I must say. We went to Philbrook and viewed the Hudson River Artists show...what amazing use of light and space! I just can't rant enough about how beautiful it all was. Philbrook was nice too, but, hey, once you've seen it, it's still the same building.
This week has been Mid Term Exams and the final turn-in for research papers....guess what I get to do next week while everyone else is on spring break? I've managed to cut the work load by 2/3 by buckling down and getting the baseline grading done. If I do it right, there's about an hour a day of the other grading....I may yet get some of this legendary "free time" that the students speak of....
Well, it's time to go teach other teachers how to create online syllabi and class websites....my evening shift is about to begin, so, peace and remember: Life is Good!
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